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TIPS & TRICKS
1. 10% RULE
Everyone wants to be strong, but not everyone goes about it the right way. The 10% Rule is a method of weight training that looks at increasing physical activity no more than 10% each week. This can be actual weight lifted, distance ran, and even time spent exercising. Keep it to 10% and prevent injuries and form a healthy habit for a healthy life!
2. Quality Over Quantity
If there is one thing leads progress, it is form. For example, writing a ten page paper is great, but if the actual content is only two pages, the rest is pointless. The same goes for forming healthy habits in weightlifting, go for quality over quantity. It is better to be able to consistently increase weight through proper form and muscle activation than going straight for high numbers and putting yourself at risk of injury. Go for quality over quantity and see the healthy habit form for a healthy life!
3. Have a Workout Partner
If there is one thing leads progress, it is form. For example, writing a ten page paper is great, but if the actual content is only two pages, the rest is pointless. The same goes for forming healthy habits in weightlifting, go for quality over quantity. It is better to be able to consistently increase weight through proper form and muscle activation than going straight for high numbers and putting yourself at risk of injury. Go for quality over quantity and see the healthy habit form for a healthy life!
4. Prepare gym materials the night before and place them next to the door.
One of the reasons people find it hard to make exercising a consistency is because it takes too much effort (Jalene, Lecture, 2016). This tip looks to minimize the amount of effort needed when getting ready in the morning. By gathering the items you need to exercise and putting them in an easily accessible place the night before, adding a workout to your day is that much easier. It is one less thing you have to worry about when getting ready in the morning.
5. Use Affirmations
Affirmation are useful phrases or words that help motivate people. Place these pieces of motivation in places that you will see them on a daily basis. Positive self motivation is essential to prevent yourself from falling back into unhealthy habits (Jalene, Lecture, 2016). With the repetitive exposure to positive thoughts, sticking to a healthy habit will lead to a healthy life!
6. Use SMART Goals
While most people try to exercise regularly, about 50% will quite a program in the first six months (Jalene, Lecture, 2016). An effective way to ensure that one sticks to their plan is to set their goals using the guidelines of SMART goal setting. Per this guideline, goals you set should be Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic, and Time-stamped (Powers, Dodd, Jackson, 2014, p 12). Having specific goals, such as aiming for a specific amount of weight loss or gain instead of just saying you want to gain or loss weight will give you something precise to shoot for instead of just an open-ended target. Having goals that are measurable will keep you motivated because you can track your progress and see how well you are doing, or if you are not making progress at least you will know that you need to change something. Goals should have a plan of attack, don’t just say you are going to do something, say how you are going to accomplish it. Goals should be reachable; if you set goals that are not realistic you will lose motivation. Lastly, you should have a period within which you would like to achieve your goals to ensure that you stay motivated.
7. Just 30 Minutes!
One of the biggest reasons people claim they do not exercise is that they do not believe they have enough time (Jalene, Lecture, 2016). However, the Surgeon General has reported that just thirty minutes of exercise per day is enough to reap the rewards of physical activity (Powers, Dodd, Jackson, 2014, p 6). Think about how much television you watch in a day? Pick one episode of one show, and instead of watching that you could get your daily workout in. Often when people claim they do not have enough time, it really comes down to a lack of priorities. If it really is too hard for you to find thirty consecutive minutes to workout in, you can breakup your workout into three separate ten minute sessions. This has been shown to have the same benefits as thirty consecutive minutes.
8. Plan for Life to Happen
As we all know, when life gets busy, the less important activities are the first to get squeezed out. When in the process of creating a healthy exercise habit, plan for life to happen and be ready to adapt (Jalene, Lecture, 2016). When things get busy, try to find exercise in everyday activities like taking the stairs instead of the escalator. Exercise plans should not meant to be written in stone, but rather an outline or road map leading to a healthy habit and then, a healthy life.
9. Not Too Little, Not Too Much, Just Right
Exercising too much is a common reason for exercise novices to stop making progress. Increasing intensity of exercise at a rapid pace can have negative impacts on mental and physical. Keeping exercise at a moderate rate during workout sessions will help maintain mental strength and increase the likelihood of sticking to your exercise program (Jalene, Lecture, 2016) and therefore get you one step closer to a healthy life!
10. Be Happy Exercising!
At the end of the day, deciding to make a change towards a healthy lifestyle will become exponentially easier if there it is fueled by passion. Make exercise fun and it will be that much more rewarding in the long run.
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